The field of wireless communication has seen dramatic growth the last few years. In today's world, most people use their wireless devices, for example mobile phones, for various purposes, business and personal, on a constant and daily basis. Society is truly becoming a wireless one. A lot of wireless solutions have been introduced, and have made tremendous strides into everyday's life.
Mobile phones have become a near absolute necessity in today's world. While mobile technology originally evolved from traditional land-based communication technologies, and was merely intended to add an element of mobility to the traditional telephony service, this technology has grown beyond that initial purpose. Many modern mobile technologies, including such technologies as GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS, and CDMA2000, incorporate substantial data capabilities. Most of today's mobile services comprise such features as text messaging, audio/video streaming, and web browsing. Modern mobile devices (phones) may be utilized to support additional services via other wireless interfaces; for example, wireless personal area networks (WPAN) and/or wireless local area network (WLAN) interfaces.
The use of wireless personal area networks (WPAN) has been gaining popularity in a great number of applications because of the flexibility and convenience in connectivity they provide. WPAN systems generally replace cumbersome cabling and/or wiring used to connect peripheral devices and/or mobile terminals by providing short distance wireless links that allow connectivity within very narrow spatial limits (typically, a 10-meter range). WPAN may be based on standardized technologies; for example Class 2 Bluetooth (BT) technology. While WPAN may be very beneficial for certain applications, other applications may require larger service areas and/or capabilities.
To satisfy such needs, other technologies have been developed to provide greater wireless service. Wireless local area networks (WLAN) systems may operate within a 100-meter range, for example. In contrast to the WPAN systems, WLAN provide connectivity to devices that are located within a slightly larger geographical area, such as the area covered by a building or a campus, for example. WLAN systems are generally based on specific standards, for example IEEE 802.11 standard specifications, and typically operate within a 100-meter range, and are generally utilized to supplement the communication capacity provided by traditional wired Local Area Networks (LANs) installed in the same geographic area as the WLAN system.
Some WLAN systems may be operated in conjunction with WPAN systems to provide users with an enhanced overall functionality. For example, Bluetooth technology may be utilized to connect a laptop computer or a handheld wireless terminal to a peripheral device, such as a keyboard, mouse, headphone, and/or printer, while the laptop computer or the handheld wireless terminal is also connected to a campus-wide WLAN network through an access point (AP) located within the building. Also, mobile technology may allow use of the mobile phone as a form of wireless modem that allows connecting a laptop, for example, to the internet via a mobile network.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.